this is taken from a Thai site, the english translation has mistakes but you can understand. Muay is Thai for Boxing (kung fu is chinese boxing) Muay Thai is therefore translated into English as Thai Boxing, the boxing part has nothing to do with western boxing or 'muay sagon', Presently MuayThai has been taking some techniques from western boxing, but still they prefer to use Knees and elbows and roundhouse kick.

As many of you already know Thai roundhouse is a feared weapon by all fighting systems, after a little research I have learned that the shin bone can take 30x the weight of your own body!!! thats normally so think what your shin bone can be like after a year or two of conditioning (kicking a heavy bag a lot)

So, what does Muay Chao Chur mean? well Muay Thai didnt just appear 2000 years ago and with rings and gloves did it, They developed this art form to protect themselves from Chinese and invadin Burmese (bare in mind Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia to have not been colonized! Muay Thai I assume has a great part to play in this.), the techniques are imitations of the tools they used to till the land with, eventually the done away with the tools and used their limbs as weapons, Muay Thai is also known as the Science of the eight limbs. There are imitations of animals as well, Elephant tusk, the snake (My Thai trainer told me to be like a snake, move like a snake then strike like a snake, move slowly and "loosely" relaxed then stalk and strike quickly and reverting back to the snake like stalking movement) and even the monkey all have an imitated technique in Muay Thai. I mean there is a very long history to this art form and some very famous instances where Muay Thai fighters have won with knock outs against other fighters using different systems for fighting, in fact its practically unheard of for any other martial artist trained in anything other than Muay Thai to defeat a top ranking Nak Muay, well now the thought "sure it was in a ring with ring rules and if it hadve been outside then maybe it would be a different story" ... this brings me onto the Muay Chao Chur, old style Muay Thai, this is the art from that, if you have the right trainer, you get taught when learning Muay Thai and when you get in a ring all you do is ommit the illegal moves. Old Style Muay Thai is the war fighting system created around 2000 years ago, bone breaking and fatal techiniques abound.

I am not putting down other martial arts and I am trying to not be biased (obvioulsy I love the art or I would not have been trying to promote it here in a forum where clearly Muay Thai is hardly spoken of and I assume is regarded as a sport and not a martial art, its cool though cos I understand why)

....so, yes I have had a little experience with other MA's, Karate and Kung Fu, i dont know if it was my teacher/s or just the forms and traditionlism within the forms that put me of them, Karate I found to be too static (no offence meant) I dont know how to say it but there wasnt enough fluidity (freedom) to it for me to continue so I tried out Kung fu, I found Kung Fu to be too much movement in thin air and forms and stuff that I wasnt really into, I can understand why people love Karate and Kung fu as after watching the better students it was simply amazing what they could do but for me it was too long a haul to be that good, I wanted action and i wanted it fast.

My first Muay Thai class.... MIND BLOWING! This is exactly waht I had imagined, hard work physical contact and rigorous training coupled with hard bag/pad and sparring sessions and to top it of the techinuqes were and still are very simple but very very effective at doing their job, to knock someone out! I am not an expert, dont take me the wrong way, I am just bored and having finished my morning training thought I'd write a little about Muay Thai :-)

Also I have been to Indonesia (Jakarta and Bali), the Indonesians have a very beautiful Martial Art "Pentjak Silat", this is pretty to watch and effective as I have witnessed but still doesnt grab me like Muay Thai has grabbed me.

Anyway guys I hope that I have enlighted some of you, and I hope maybe you even try a little Muay Thai out.

congratulations on finding "your art"i like muay thai too, its just simple and brutal. but i think the thing i like most about it, is that there are really not that many techniques to learn, the emphasis is on training.i cant say i have studied "muay thai"...but i can say i have done some kickboxing (not the art)...that is more thai than american....like "thai type stuff" lolid like to learn some actual muay thai, and also interested in krabi-krabong!! and indonesian silat, i hear very good things about it as well.have you heard of the burmese art of BANDO? it is simelar to muay thai, and is said to have evolved partially from muay thai.the general term for burmese martial arts is "thaing" which means self defense by both armed and unarmed methods. "bando" is boxing by another name, but literally means "way of the disciplined"it contains the usual blocking and striking found in many arts, especially muay thai, but also contains grappling and locking. it has 12 basic postures which are based on 12 animals, simelar to many kung fu systems, once a student has these down he learns from sparring with other students, and in bando the round kick is the same as a thai kick. once the instructor has determined a students physical make up, he introduces you to the animal style that best suits that individual. i have read that although the art contains many animals, the black panther has become the symbol of bando.back to muay thai, i have a basic martial arts history book that has a story in it:"over the centuries the greatest of the muay thai fighters have become legendary. stories are told of their battles and adventures to eager listening children by the village storyteller. perhaps the most famous of all siamese fighters was nai khanom dtom. he was a brilliant athlete and a strong courageous man, holding the title of the best fighter in all siam. during the many wars that siam had with her neighbor burma, nai khanom dtom ws captured by burmese soldiers. they had heard of his great fighting ability so they decided to pit him against 12 of burma's top bando fighters, and if he could defeat all 12, nai khanom dtom would be allowed to go free. so the next day in a stadium packed with thousands of people. nai khanom dtom prepared to fight bare-handed against the cream of burma's best fighters. one by one they cam at him, all out to kill him and become heroes themselves for defeating the greatese martial artist in siam. as each fighter pitted his skills against the great nai khanom dtom, he was instantly killed, being dispatched with lightning elbow strikes and murderous knee blows. as the day wore on, the great siamese champion had slain nine of his adversaries, the spectators, who had been cheering for their own men, suddenly began to cheer for this magnificent fighter from siam. they were full of admiration for the prisoner who had fought and killed nine men without rest or being wounded himself. by the end of the day 12 bodies lay in the dry dust of the stadium, and standing tall and undefeated was the great nai khanom dtom. the king of burma had no alternative but to let him go free. today, many centuries after that event, thai boxers honor him by dedicating one fight night each year to nai khanom dtom.i just thought it was an interesting story, and a little history too.

...today, many centuries after that event, thai boxers honor him by dedicating one fight night each year to nai khanom dtom.i just thought it was an interesting story, and a little history too...

Man I saw this event 2 years ago in Northern Thailand, nice one for bringing it up, yeah its interesting, i have also been to Mynmar, not far in the country, 3 times on a Visa run. I wouldnt like to fight these Burmese Boxers as I touched one and he was like wood. The Laotions and the Cambodians also have a style similar to Thai.

Muay Thai has many moves but the moves are not so hard to learn once the basics are pretty much mastered....

These are maemai (there are other styles) MuayThai, about roughly 150 techniques that are easily learned but to do instinctively takes time and practice (like anything I suppose)

KrabiKrabong is usually taught once you have reached a high level of Muay Thai training, notice the little arm bands Muay Thai boxers wear? these are not there for decoration but more of an indication of what level you are at, each level has a different colour, and the Buddha image inset on the arm band is for luck, Thais are very much into their lucky amuletes etc etc.

I will be returning on 28th December, I have a one way ticket, will resume my training at S.Anucha Muay Thai boxing camp where I will sleep and eat. I should by then have 5 fights under my belt, S.Anucha dont have a website and last time I was there only about 3 foreigners were there one of whom left soon after starting training. I can speak Thai to a degree, I am constantly learning as in my Gym a guy is married to a Thai and she pops in sometimes to watch, well to be honest I love Thai culture, I have been to a few S.E.Asian countries but Thailand is the place for me (northern/east Thailand) I love Thai food and I love the Thai language which is similar to Muay Thai, SIMPLE!!! hahaha.

I have no idea how long I will stay there for or what will happen after some time, I dont really care so long as I leave Thailand (if i leave) with Thai fight experience and educated in Muay Thai and able to speak Thai language well... then I will be content with myself, if it takes 5 years then so be it.

May I point out that Thailand, like many dont realise, has more than just Brothels and hookers, its amazing where a 1 hour motorbike ride will take ya, I have found myself in amongst Hmong and liu gazing at the Annamite Mountain range as the sun is settingwith a friend, and riding up to a sacred Buddhist temple at the peak of a mountain called doi Suthep theres a hell of a lot to do and once you get away from the tourist infected areas of Khao san road (Banglamphoo area) in Bankok and leave the Southern beaches then you enter a beautiful and very historical peacful Thailand (Thailand is a very peacful country I meant not busy)

Here the worries of everyday life strike home with bills, mortgages, job careers and women etc etc... society here is taxing and stressful, when I arrive in S.E.Asia I take a little money and I take very little belongings, 7 kilo travel bag, but life then starts! I just feel we in the western world have it all wrong, our priorities are a little fucked up to say the least, why should money dominate our lives so much and why should a career matter? Life passes quickly and whats wrong with dying with nothing? in Laos the poor, the jobless, they are seen as humble people and highly respected belive it or not, in our society these people are regarded as lazy and unsuccesfull.

anyway enough of my rantings about cultural differences and my passion for the Thai culture....

(its funny that the Thais havnt taken any technique from any other martial art other than western boxing, Thais themselves regard all other martial arts as boring (I myself dont)***I DO NOT MEAN THIS AS OFFENSIVE JUST STATING A FACT*** a strange but true fact!)

....more or less Maemai is the foundation of combat using Muay Thai, there are many many more moves, I think a lot of people regard Muay Thai as very limited in "tricks", its not, although a lot (not all) of the moves are pretty easy to learn how to do there are still many that are not so easy and take time. The basics of Muay Thai is very strong, in fact the basics is all that you practically need to know in order to fully defend yourself in a fight. the basics are straight knee, cross elbows, Thai roundhouse kick which you must be able to do cold and with height and the teep (push) kick. These are the basics, you learn them then you practice on pads or bag then you compete or fight someone using them then when your teacher sees you know them you then learn more advanced techniques and do the same cycle again until you are fully proficient at the art. By the way i am repeating what was told to me... I am still learning! hehe.

Mynmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos and some parts fo Northern Vietnam have all got a style that is very similar to Thai Boxing, I was told that I could go to Cambodia and learn Muay Thai or Laos, but I chose Thailand as there is the home of Muay Thai and there is where i will learn the art well. It's no exaggeration when thy say practically NO other fighter trained in any other martial art has defeated a top ranking Muay Thai fighter using their own system and with varied rules, fighters trained in Muay Thai have defeated Muay Thai fighters using Muay Thai!

[IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG] just [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG]I've heard of Doi Suthep, isnt that in the north near a town called Chiang Mai? That's where I'm planning on going for my gap year. Real Muay Thai training.

While on he topic of boxing thought you people might like to know about Yaw-Yan. The Philippine version of boxing.http://www.yawyan.com/

I did have a link for Krabi Krabong but I can't find it right now, sorry. Had some interesting pictures and a bit of information about the art.And how come not many people here talk about Muay Thai? Personally I think it's the best stand up form of fighting you can have. Simple and effective. We should try and start a Muay Thai forum on here, more can only be better.